By Rick Reeno

The long awaited HBO debut of Joe Calzaghe is upon us. In the tradition of Lennox Lewis, Ricky Hatton and Prince Naseem Hamed, Calzaghe has fought his way to bright lights of HBO.

Undefeated IBF/WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (41-0, 31 KOs) from Newbridge, Wales, takes on Sakio Bika (20-1-2, 13 KOs) from Sydney, Australia, in the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England.

Coming off one of the most unexpected victories of 2006, that being a one-sided domination of Jeff Lacy in March, Calzaghe now wants to build on his victory over Lacy by beating Bika in impressive fashion.

Not much is known about Aussie fighter Bika, who told the press on numerous occasions that he is going to knock Calzaghe out. Bika has fought two opponents with name recognition, Sam Soliman and WBC 168-pound champion Markus Beyer. The fight with Soliman ended in a majority decision loss, the only time Bika was beaten, 4-years-ago. The fight was obviously close, but at the same time the fight was at 160-pounds and against a fighter that has no power in his punches.

Bika's last bout, against Beyer, ended in a four round draw. A clash of heads opened up a deep cut under Beyer's left eye, causing the stoppage. The fight went to the cards, with two judges scoring the bout a draw and the final judge had Beyer winning all four rounds.

Bika appears to have weight issues (weight in last four bouts ranged from 156-171), fought most of his career at 160 and is taking a serious step up in class against a much larger, more experienced fighter in Calzaghe. Bika should put up a decent fight, but don't expect Calzaghe to have any serious problems.

This is the most important fight of Calzaghe's career. Not because of Bika, but because he is fighting live for the first time on HBO, before the largest American audience to ever see him in action. If Calzaghe has any ambitions of coming over to America, he must beat Bika without stinking out the arena with a boring 12-round snooze fest. Fighters often say that it doesn't matter how you win, as long as you win. That saying stands true in many scenarios, but not this one.

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